The present invention relates to methods and systems for the management of agricultural plots of land. More specifically, information related to elevation, soil conductivity, satellite imagery, and grower yield history is extracted from the plots of land. The extracted information is used to generate a management zone profile and create a prescription for the plot of land.
As the demand on the food supply increases and the total viable farmland decreases, methods and systems are needed that maximize crop yields. Maximum crop yields result in increased production of agricultural products and more value per acre of land. However, the effort in maximizing crop yields is difficult, time consuming, and costly because the characteristics of farmland vary from acre to acre. This variance is due to factors such as the conditions of the soil and topography. Further, a field may include significant acre-to-acre variations in nutrients, quality of crop produced, and ultimately crop yield.
For example, residual soil nutrients can vary considerable. Nitrate nitrogen can vary from about 15 lbs/acre to 150 lbs/acre. Quality of the crop can also show significant variability. For example, protein and test weight for wheat can range 2.5 percent in a single 40-acre field. The yield can vary as well. Typically, yields range from 50 percent less than the mean to 50 percent greater than the mean. Most applied nutrient amounts are determined by the expected yield of the crop. Therefore, it is important to determine yield potentials prior to application of fertilizers.
The soil type can also significantly affect crop yields. Agricultural lands are typically comprised of several different soil types, each of which may be categorized according to differences in soil texture, soil depth, and soil chemistry. Soil texture can be measure by examining the relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay contained within the soil.
Although any given plot of land or field may include many different soil types, it would be unusual if it did not include at least two substantially different soils having substantially different fertilization requirements. Some fields contain one dominant soil type that covers the majority of the field area with the remaining area made up of other different soil types. These other areas of different soil type are distributed around the field in various locations and have irregularly shaped boundaries, which often, but not necessarily, correspond to low or high spots. Often, a field contains a number of soil types. Ideally, each of the individual areas of different soil should be treated independently for the purpose of applying seed, fertilizer, or other items to the field.
Present methods determine nutrient requirements by taking soil samples from different areas of the field in a grid configuration. Characteristics such as soil composition and type can be assessed from the soil samples. Additionally, topography can be ascertained. Determining the soil characteristics from samples taken throughout a plot of land, particularly when the farm is thousands of acres, would require analysis on hundreds if not thousands of samples. Extracting and analyzing this multitude of soil samples is cost prohibitive and does not provide a viable method for maximizing agricultural output. Furthermore, the grid method may allow a varied number of soil types and elevations to be included within a single area due to the irregularity in shape of the different areas of the field. This is also problematic.
The current practice is to prescribe items, such as seed and fertilizer, to the entire plot of land or section of the land, if using the grid method, according to the needs of the most deficient soil, or according to the averaged requirements of the different soils. The result is that a substantial area of the field receives either more or less of the item being applied, resulting in significant waste of expensive of materials, such as fertilizer, and potentially lowering yields. In the field averaging method, only those sections which fall under average field characteristics will receive the proper field prescription leaving the remainder of the field without the correct seed, fertilizer, or chemical treatment. Both the deficient soil and field average methods fail to maximize field yields and output.
It would be desirable to develop system and methods that manage farmland to increase crop yields, maximize output per acre of land, and reduce costs associated with managing and assessing the crop yield potential for a field. The present invention addresses these needs.
Generally, the present invention relates to methods and systems for providing a prescription of at least one item to a plot of farmland. In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems are solved by creating a management zone profile that is based upon information extracted from the plot of land.
In accordance with one aspect, the present invention relates to a method for A method for characterizing a plot of land, the method comprising the steps of: generating an elevation profile for the plot of land; generating a soil conductivity profile for the plot of land; generating a satellite image profile of the plot of land; and analyzing the elevation profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite image profile to generate a management zone profile.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a method for characterizing a plot of land, the method comprising the steps of: collecting elevational information on the plot of land; collecting soil conductivity information on the plot of land; collecting satellite imagery information on the plot of land; correlating the elevational information, the soil conductivity information, and the satellite imagery information to a latitude and longitude to produce an elevation profile, a soil conductivity profile, a satellite imagery profile, and a grower history profile; and providing the elevational profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite imagery profile for analysis to generate a management zone profile.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a method for characterizing a plot of land, the method comprising the steps of: providing elevational information on the plot of land; providing soil conductivity information on the plot of land; providing infrared satellite imagery information on the plot of land; correlating the elevational information, the soil conductivity information, and the satellite imagery information to a latitude and longitude to produce an elevation profile, a soil conductivity profile, a satellite imagery profile, and a grower history profile; and providing the elevational profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite imagery profile for analysis to generate a management zone profile.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a method for managing a plot of land, the method comprising the steps of: generating an elevation profile for the plot of land; generating a soil conductivity profile for the plot of land; generating an satellite image of the plot of land; analyzing the elevation profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite image profile to generate a management zone profile, wherein the management zone profile is divided into two or more agronomy zones; obtaining at least one soil sample from each of two or more agronomy zones; analyzing the at least one soil sample obtained from each of the two or more agronomy zones; and applying a prescribed amount of at least one item to the plot of land based upon based upon the analysis of the at least one soil sample obtained from each of the two or more agronomy zones and the management zone profile.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a method of analyzing information organized into a profile and for transforming the profile into a management zone profile, the method comprising: storing the profile into a memory; analyzing attributes of the profile; mapping analyzed attributes of the profile into a management zone profile, wherein the management zone profile comprises two or more agronomy zones; and whereby a user can extract meaning from the management zone profile by comprehending the relationships between the two or more agronomy zones.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a method of analyzing information organized into at least two profiles and for transforming the profiles into a management zone profile, the method comprising: storing the at least two profiles into a memory; analyzing attributes of the at least two profiles; mapping analyzed attributes of the at least two profiles into a management zone profile, wherein the management zone profile comprises two or more agronomy zones; and whereby a user can extract meaning from the management zone profile by comprehending the relationships between the two or more agronomy zones.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a system for analyzing an elevational profile, a soil conductivity profile, and a satellite image profile, and for transforming the profiles into a management zone profile, the system comprising: a memory configured with a data structure for maintaining an arrangement of the profiles; and a processor configured to map attributes of the profiles into the management zone profile.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a computer-readable medium encoded with data representing a computer program which can cause a computer, having a processor, a memory and an output device, to analyze data organized into at least two profiles and for transforming the at least two profiles into a management zone profile, the computer program comprising a method for: storing the at least two profiles into a memory; analyzing attributes of the at least two profiles; mapping analyzed attributes of the at least two profiles into a management zone profile, wherein the management zone profile comprises two or more agronomy zones; and whereby a user can extract meaning from the management zone profile by comprehending the relationships between the two or more agronomy zones.
In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a system for determining agricultural yield potentials for a plot of land comprising: an elevation profile for the plot of land; a soil conductivity profile for the plot of land; a satellite image profile for the plot of land; a memory configured with a data structure for storing the elevation profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite image profile; and a processor configured to analyze the elevation profile, the soil conductivity profile, and the satellite image profile to generate a management zone profile.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each disclosed embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. The Figures and the detailed description, which follows, more particularly exemplify these embodiments.